If you like funny jokes, cute illustrations, and scrolling through a blog post, then you’ve come to the right place.
Whether you're a parent, teacher, or just someone who loves to hear kids laugh, these jokes are sure bring a smile to a child's face. These illustrated jokes are available as a printable lunchbox notes in my Etsy shop; just order, download, print, and throw them in your kids’ lunchboxes to brighten their day.
Picture books have a unique ability to distill life's most difficult topics into heartwarming, relatable stories that resonate with readers of all ages.
When my mom died earlier this year, one of the hardest part was telling my kids. My mom was probably their favourite person on earth, and they were definitely hers. She wasn’t just a wonderful grandmother, she was their best friend. Throughout the weeks that followed, my wife and I brought home numerous picture books on the topic of death to help our kids (and ourselves) make sense of their emotions.
There are a lot of great children’s books about losing someone, but the one that stood out to me the most was The Memory Tree, written and illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.
The Memory Tree tells the story of the day that fox laid down in the forest, and fell asleep forever. The other forest animals gather around and remember all the beautiful memories they shared with fox. It is beautifully illustrated, and told in a gentle and loving way that both kids and adults can relate to. In the end, a new tree grows in the forest in the place that fox passed away, serving as a beautiful reminder of the fox's life and the lasting impact he had on those around him. The book addresses the loss of a loved one, while focusing on celebrating the memories that we have with them.
In dealing with such a complex and difficult topic like death, it can be tempting to overcomplicate things, but sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones that speak to us in a simple, universal way. By focusing on the comfort and connection shared between the fox and his friends, The Memory Tree manages to touch on something deeply human without getting bogged down in complicated explanations or metaphors.
No book will ever take the sadness away. In fact it makes me sadder every time I think of the image of fox laying in the snow with his friends gathering around, but I also immediately think of the scene of fox catching leaves with owl, running through the trees with rabbit, or playing with bear’s cubs, and then I can’t help but think about my mom painting birdhouses with my kids, or taking them to the park, or simply hugging them in the doorway.
I would love to have my mom back, just as I would love my kids to have their grandmother back, but although that will never happen. I am thankful for all of the beautiful memories she left us.
In conclusion, The Memory Tree addresses the universal topic of death in a gentle and comforting way, making it an accessible and valuable resource for children and families dealing with loss.
A couple of other picture books about loss that I loved include:
The Invisible String, written by Patrice Karst, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
reminds us that we are always connected to those that we love, even when their far away or gone forever
The Memory Box written by Joanna Rowland, illustrated Thea Baker
Gentle advise on the different ways that we can keep the memories of the ones we lost close to us
Have you come across any other great picture books about death? Please share your recommendations in the comments below. And if you've read The Memory Tree, I would love to hear your thoughts.
This story, written during an artist residency in Edmonton Alberta, is near and dear to my heart for several reasons. When I first heard about the true story of moon trees I was immediately fascinated, and I thought this would be a great story to explore with the grade 2/3 students at my artist residency at Brander Gardens School.
We started off by brainstorming as many ideas for the trees as possible, and then we collectively decided which ones would make it into the story. The students then helped me decide what the illustrations would look like while I sketched out their ideas. Personally, I think the illustrations turned out great.
Originally I was against the ideas of the breakdancing trees, but choosing to keep them or not turned out to a very important decision, as it marked to what extent I was writing stories with the students’ help, and to what extent the students were writing stories with me as a guide. We obviously chose to keep the breakdancing trees, and I’m glad we did. It was a wonderful moment of letting go of my own idea of how a story should go, and I’ve come to embrace the chaotic creativity of the students’ minds.
‘The Amazing Tube’, written the Brander Garden School’s grade 3 students during an artist residency.
For this class I brought in a box of empty toilet paper tubes and told the kids to come up with as many things to do with them as possible. Over the course of the two week artist residency I saw this class for 4 sessions (3 hours total), and we spent the rest of our time consolidating everyone’s ideas, developing the characters, and deciding what each page will look like.
My original idea for the ending was that the characters would go to a friends’ birthday, and get them an empty paper tube of their own. The students came up with this much cleaner ending.
For more information about elementary school writing workshops in the Edmonton area, click here.
Last month I did a series of writing workshops with elementary students at a local Edmonton School during a 2-week artist residency. Throughout my visit, each class created a different story, collectively ending up with a series of 11 fully illustrated stories.
One my my favourite stories (actually, they’re all my favourites), is this one written with one of the grade 6 classes. Scroll down to read a bit of the backstory ad see why I love this on so much.
Last year I did a few writing workshops at this same school, where the students and I came up with an outline for a story, including introduction, the plot points, and the ending, and then I illustrate one page for the story. One story which has become somewhat legendary was Pancake vs Waffle, a story about two breakfast foods competing to see who is the best while making a big mess of themselves (and the kitchen) in the process. The page I illustrated featured pancake and waffle racing around the kitchen riding on cats. In the end, the family comes down for breakfast, and when they see pancake and waffle they say ‘Eww, we’ll just have crepes”.
For this residency, I gave this class the honour of writing the last story for the collection, and I thought it would be a cool meta thing to call it ‘The Last Page’. Other than the title, I had no other prompts for the students. Little did I realize that we would eventually end up paying homage to a piece of the school’s history, and writing a story about two siblings writing the story of Pancake vs Waffle.
This is what I love about doing these workshops; when I showed up last year, I never would have dreamed that I’d be drawing a pancake and a waffle riding cats, and when I showed up this year, I never would of guessed that I’d be seeing pancake and waffle yet again.
For more information about school writing workshops in the Edmonton area (and beyond), click here.